Veteran teacher’s ‘U’ ratings forced her out

On April 14, 38-year veteran teacher Rosemary Byrne-Dunn handed in her retirement papers.

The 61-year-old said she would have liked to stay at IN-Tech Academy, MS/HS 368 a little longer, but administrators there gave her unsatisfactory ratings on routine evaluations for little or no reason, making her job unpleasant and stressful. She is the second teacher in about two months to make this claim. 

A wheelchair-bound polio victim, Ms. Byrne-Dunn said she got her first unsatisfactory rating about a year ago and, since then, has received three more. All the unsatisfactory ratings were on informal evaluations. In February, she got a satisfactory rating on her formal evaluation. 

She got low marks for various factors, including not using enough technology and not providing for English language learners. 

“It’s like so evil and, I mean, I’ve been a teacher for over 30 years and now they’re targeting me,” she said, adding, “We’re talking about lies and all kinds of things like that.”

Ms. Byrne-Dunn’s story is similar to that of teacher Andy Cocovinis, who told The Press he was fired from IN-Tech after receiving three years’ worth of satisfactory evaluations and less than a years’ worth of unsatisfactory ones. Both teachers complained that they were given difficult schedules and charged with teaching subjects they were unfamiliar with.  For example, Ms. Byrne-Dunn said she taught 439 students last year, although she normally teaches around 150. 

Ms. Byrne-Dunn estimated that administrators are giving “at least 10 to 15” teachers at IN-Tech unfair evaluations in an effort to remove them. A top-salary teacher, Ms. Byrne-Dunn said she thinks the school targeted her to save money. However, she could not explain the benefit of removing younger, untenured employees.

“I feel very sorry for other people … they’re afraid to say anything because they have mortgages and they have kids,” she said.